Shipping and logistics company Maersk has launched the first deep-sea container service to the ports of Greater Odesa since the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine.
This was reported by the CFTS portal, citing the online publication The Loadstar.
Large container ships do not yet call at the ports of Greater Odesa. Part of a collaboration with Ukrainian feeder operator Iteris, the service is using a vessel with a capacity of over 1,100 TEU to connect Ukraine’s deep-sea port of Chornomorsk with Romania’s Constanta container terminal.
The feeder container service is being provided between the Romanian port of Constanta and the port of Chornomorsk, as in the case of Hapag-Lloyd AG, a German international shipping and container transport company.
“In April, Iteris and Maersk were in the process of bringing empty containers for exporters and shipping full cargo containers to Constanta for transshipment. Arkas, CMA CGM, Evergreen, and MSC are sharing space on the service,” said Danylo Melnychenko, a representative of the Informall BG consulting company.
He added that in addition to Maersk, Arkas, CMA CGM, Evergreen, and MSC also transport containers on this service, obviously referring to transportation between Constanta and the port of Reni on the Danube.
According to the report, the launch of the deep-water container service to the port of Chornomorsk has led to the cancellation of the barge service between the ports of Reni and Constanta, on which Iteris and Maersk also collaborated. The last barge on this service is scheduled for 15 June.
Melnychenko expects the new service’s container volume to double in the coming months and expects more shipping lines to join the service.
Meanwhile, according to the report, Turkish shipping line Akkon has started a feeder service to Chornomorsk, using its own ships. According to Melnychenko, it will be the only carrier offering its own vessels for services to the port.
As reported earlier, on 3 April 2024 a container ship entered one of the ports in Greater Odesa for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war. The ship transports containers on feeder routes to a foreign hub, where they are loaded onto ocean-going container ships of global container lines. According to open-source information, the ship called at the port of Chornomorsk, from where it sailed to the Romanian port of Constanta.
On 21 April, the container ship Pros Hope entered the port of Chornomorsk. It was the first container ship to enter the ports of Greater Odesa since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion not as part of a feeder service but directly from the original point of departure.
